Gordon Duff: Captured American Soldier In Afghanistan Raises Many Questions

April 9, 2010

[The following column is reprinted with permission from Gordon Duff, staff writer and Senior Editor at Veterans Today. He is a regularly featured columnist on my other blog, Pine River World News. This is his first appearance on IntelTrends.]

* Accusation of defection, collaboration complicated by video released by group tied to Mossad

* Something very wrong here

Yesterday, a very odd video of PFC Robert Bergdahl was released to the media. It was said to have been “found” on the internet by SITE Intelligence, misidentified as a “Washington” group. “SITE Intelligence” has long been tied to Israeli intelligence, the Mossad, and has been the source of many questionable items including bizarre Osama bin Laden tapes of all kinds. With, literally tens of thousands of of American intelligence officers in 14 agencies scanning the internet, some using the most sophisticated equipment known to man, equipment that can find a single word in Arabic on an email from Sudan, the idea that SITE Intelligence, Rita Katz, simply stumbles on such things is a farce.

Michelle Malkin started asking the hard questions some time ago. The story she carried, reinforced from reports from Afghanistan, is that Bergdahl had planned to leave his unit, had abandoned his equipment and had walked off.

Received from a USARPAC soldier this morning:

“Please don’t list my name – I am here in Afghanistan – I know the story and the accounts that he was drunk or that he was lagging behind on patrol are not true – this soldier planned this move for a long time. He walked off the post with a day’s supply of water and had written down before that he wanted to live in the mountains. He has violated the Code of Conduct in his 28 minute speech and he is an e[m]barrassment to everyone who has worn the uniform. He made it to two towns and was asking for water when the locals turned him over to the Taliban. That is really all I can say – since we are still looking for this soldier.”

Malkin also adds:

The circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture weren’t clear. On July 2, two U.S. officials told the AP the soldier had “just walked off” his base with three Afghans after his shift. He had no body armor or weapon and they said they had no explanation for why he left. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. On July 6, the Taliban claimed on their Web site that five days earlier “a drunken American soldier had come out of his garrison” and was captured by mujahadeen. In the video, Pfc. Bergdahl said he was lagging behind a patrol when he was captured. Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.

Hard Questions Unavoidable

The region that Bergdahl disappeared in is listed as a Taliban stronghold. It is also an area where Indian RAW agents operating as “security personnel” and “Consular Officers” have been accused of arming and training terrorists in a surrogate war against Pakistan. Attacks that have killed hundreds have been staged there and weapons from India have been seized.

Taliban in the area work directly with India and Israel against Pakistan. Not only are there thousands of Indian personnel there, estimates from 2,000 to many more, Afghanistan is filled with Israelis pretending to be German contractors, NGO officers and everyone else, all carrying passports from Britain, Canada, everywhere but Israel.

When a captured American soldier is seen on a video distributed by Israeli intelligence services, the partners of the Indian groups operating in Afghanistan in cooperation with the Taliban against Pakistan, we have to start asking questions.

Excessive Coverage Of Bergdahl In Israel

Israeli press has given the Bergdahl issue an unusual amount of press. Some sites have contended that Bergdahl is a Jew, something we have been unable to confirm, and may be subject to unusual danger because of this.

With the strong ties between India and the Taliban and the military alliance between India and Israel against Pakistan, anything, even something so simple as an American being captured, if this is the case, becomes suspicious, especially when a video, one clearly bizarre and curious, is released through the least credible source possible.

Accusations Of Collaboration

Perhaps the best known American collaborator since Benedict Arnold has been Senator John McCain, who, while a POW in North Vietnam, not only made numerous propaganda broadcasts but was accused of aiding the military efforts of the enemy against the United States. His powerful family connections, a presidential pardon and having his records “classified” for eternity eliminate any possibility of accountability.

Pfc Bergdahl’s broadcasts don’t begin to approach the level of Senator McCain’s nor is there any proof he is actively helping the Taliban. All that can be said of the entire situation is that it is strange, one prisoner only, farcical propaganda broadcasts, requests for prisoner trades that nobody pays attention to and, most odd of all, now a tape released through a source tied to an Israeli group that continually comes up with bin Laden tapes no other source on earth can find, especially odd since intelligence agencies have confirmed bin Laden’s death years ago.

Offer To Meet Taliban And Repatriate Bergdahl

Prior to traveling to the region last month, Jeff Gates and I left word that we would be willing to meet with the Taliban in Afghanistan and repatriate Pfc Bergdahl. We figured if the Taliban was really holding him, the propaganda value of turning him over to American journalists, both Vietnam Veterans, would outweigh the liability of having to move a prisoner around under the watchful eye of America’s fearsome Predator UAV umbrella.

The utter lack of ability to establish any communication with the Taliban, although we have strong connections with a majority of Afghan tribal leaders, really establishes nothing conclusory. We simply wanted him home and were willing to take risks to assure this.

Pakistan’s Role And What Few Americans Understand

A slim majority of Americans, fewer every day, believe we are in Afghanistan to fight terrorism. As more and more information on political infighting and drug dealing come to light, doubts arise. Continual stories of massive corruption cost the war even more credibility.

What is not discussed in the press is the surrogate war between India and Pakistan, a war being fought over Kashmir and over water rights, a war between two nuclear powers, that is being fought under the guise of American efforts in Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan, other than building a drug empire covering the entire region of Asia, is really nothing but an attempt to collapse Pakistan, America’s only real military ally in the Middle East and Islam’s only nuclear power.

Recent events involving Israel have bought to light the unmistakable fact that America is Israel’s friend but Israel has long been harboring serious hostility toward, not only the United States but Western Europe as well. Terrorist acts against Pakistan supported by the Indo-Israeli alliance with bases inside Afghanistan and a relationship to the Taliban, an organization the United States is fighting, offers a series of irreconcilable contradictions of overall mission objectives.

Figuring Pfc Bergdahl Into The Equation

Prior to the release by Israeli sources of the Taliban demand tape featuring Bergdahl, there may have been questions about his status, but the general consensus was that he was a prisoner in immediate danger, held by the Taliban. Now the recent video leaves some unanswered questions as to whether he may be a pawn in a wider geopolitical game, not between the Afghan Taliban but rather a wider dispute between India and Pakistan that is sucking in players like a giant cosmic black hole.

Whatever games may be in the offing or how Bergdahl is being used, and he is certainly being used, no doubt about that, he must be returned home. It is one thing for the Taliban to take prisoners, something not typical at all, or to make such demands, it is quite something else for the Taliban to communicate with the West through Israel, their sworn enemy. What we are seeing is a situation with too many players, too many concerns, few of them involving either PFC Bergdahl or the United States and something no American soldier should be subjected to.

Stories Of Collaboration Not Credible

The stories accusing Bergdahl of collaboration are outlandish. He has been held prisoner by someone for months, whether they are Afghan Taliban or Pakistani Taliban working with India and Israel, the threat against Bergdahl is real. He isn’t the son of a senator or admiral. Setting a code of conduct for this one soldier well above that followed by so many others is unfair and reeks of political game playing.

However, we should also be open to the possibility that factions few Americans know about may be involved in his capture and detention and motivations our military and government will never report accurately could well be tied to his fate.__________

Gordon Duff is a U.S. Marine Vietnam veteran, grunt and 100% disabled vet. He has been a U.N. Diplomat, defense contractor and is a widely published expert on military and defense issues. He is active in the financial industry and is a specialist on global trade. Gordon Duff acts as political and economic advisor to a number of governments in Africa and the Middle East. He is Senior Editor at Veterans Today.